1. Consider creating a dedicated workspace that offers few distractions.

Jennifer Evans, VP Marketing at Southern Living in Manhattan, lost power at her home in Morris County, New Jersey—one of the top four hardest-hit counties in the state—for two weeks. In turn, she and her husband Jeff took their two boys and their dog to her mother-in-law’s home. Jennifer, who already telecommutes when she can, knows she needs a space that provides little disruption while she’s working, so she usually hits the library or Starbucks. With the power down everywhere, however, neither locations were options. Instead, she found a way to her company’s outside office in Parsippany, NJ. “I just showed up on the doorstep and said, ‘Hi, I work in New York. Can you help me?’ They were great—they set us up on different computers and gave us server access.” Jeff, a high school teacher whose school was out, even ended up joining Jennifer at the office. “When you have to get work done, you just go into makeshift mode.”

Fortunately for Cristina Luna, an Art Director who works in Manhattan and lives in northern New Jersey, her home had electricity and running water. But with family and friends nearby who didn’t, she and her husband welcomed several people into their house to take shelter. Transportation difficulties kept Cristina away from the office for four days, however, and work deadlines were still looming. “With everyone there, it felt like a party—like I needed to be a hostess. But I was the only one who could do my job remotely, so I was also the only person working. And while I was more than happy to help everyone out, it was also unfortunately distracting since my work still needed to be delivered on time.”

2. Be prepared to make an extra effort to interact with people during work hours. 

Working from home means more alone time—and everyone we interviewed mentioned missing out on regular connections with coworkers. “I missed the interaction with my colleagues and also the team environment,” explained Rob Jarschke, a contract senior interior designer for Herman Miller, whose Soho studio in Manhattan was without power for almost a week. “Collaboration is important in what I do each day.”

It only took Brooklyn resident Zovig Garboushian two days out of the office before she found a way to leave her apartment for the change of scenery her midtown Manhattan workspace could provide. “I had power and was able to work from home, but I very quickly felt stir crazy. So as soon as I heard that our office had power, I got approval from my manager to get a car service into the city,” she said. “I needed to talk with people, to laugh. I needed those day-to-day interactions again.”

3. Kids at home? Remember that that’s another job in itself.

With the power out in her Manhattan apartment, Randine Pastrovic, Herman Miller’s Marketing Lead for Specialty and Consumer, spent the week of the superstorm in a Times Square hotel room provided by her husband’s company. With her husband continually having to work and their regular daycare without power, Randine had to take on baby duty for their small daughter. “When she was asleep, that was the only time when I could jump online and take part in conference calls,” she explained.

With schools out everywhere, childcare was also an issue for Jennifer Evans and her husband, who were only able to spend working time in a satellite office after their nanny was able to pitch in again. But it was Cristina Luna’s full household that proved positive on the babysitting end. “I already work from home one day a week, and when I do, I know to have a sitter on hand for my toddler. So while we did have several people in our house during that time, at least I had lots of help with my daughter!”

4. Be sure to take a breather, move around — and step away from the desk.

Weather, power outages, and lack of transportation left many temporary telecommuters stuck inside with not much to do except work. “It made me restless. I really hated not being physically active,” stated Zovig Garboushian. Her first stop after getting to her office right after the lights came back on? Her nearest gym location. “I needed a break from not being able to really move around.”

Randine Pastrovic let breaks from work in her midtown hotel room turn into much-needed exercise — and regular check-ins on some people who needed it most. “I took my daughter for walks down to our apartment in Union Square,” she said. “Our next-door neighbors are older, and one can’t walk well, so they weren’t able to get out. We were able to bring them a transistor radio and other things they needed. We made sure to take that walk every day.”

Did you learn anything while working from home during Hurricane Sandy? Let us know in the comments section.

There are still many victims from Hurricane Sandy that need aid during this recovery period. To learn more about how you can help, click here. 

Photo: Gabriela Herman

1. How long have you been working as a photographer? I like to think of my experience with photography as a puzzle where I’m constantly adding new pieces to form a collective whole. I started in high school, where I would spend most of my afternoons slaving away in the darkroom, jamming to my Discman. When in college at Wesleyan University, I began shooting for the school newspaper and working as a darkroom assistant. While studying abroad, I broadened my knowledge adding more pieces to the puzzle. I moved to Mexico for a semester and was introduced to the color darkroom. In São Paulo, I learned the history of photography from an old Brazilian master. In Salvador, Bahia, I turned to documentary work. After college I moved to Sao Paulo and it was there that I decided to pursue a career in the field. From that moment I have completely invested myself in that pursuit. After working with several acclaimed Brazilian photographers I made the move to New York and started again from scratch. It has now been three and a half years that I have been living as a freelance photographer in the city.

2. What inspired the blogger portraits? I blog and I read blogs. A lot of them. Blogs have become my go-to source for information; they feed and comfort me. Today, bloggers are widely respected within their industries and have become our new decision makers as they showcase, analyze and filter information for us.

While it is heavily debated how modern technology can isolate us, there are undeniably many upsides to this online evolution. I believe bloggers are connecting us, bringing us closer. In some ways, bloggers are helping create a reverse wave in our technological age by forming an authentic exchange between blogger and reader. Bloggers allow for an interactive platform, a dialogue that allows for both online and offline relationships to form.

It is through our screens, these beacons of light, that the world opens up and we become literally linked to one another. I began photographing bloggers with this idea in mind, giving the viewer a peek into their intimate worlds by using their screens as the sole light source.

3. You’ve worked all over the world. Tell us about your favorite shoot? Ohh that’s a tough one! My favorite shoots are the ones where I come out of them with a new friend. Just yesterday, for example, I was sent down to Vero Beach, FL for an assignment shooting a couple who runs a boot camp and this morning we have been sending facebook messages and texts non-stop!

4. What draws you to portrait work? Since I began photographing, I have always insisted on being in front of the lens, becoming part of the construction of my images. Photography has become my therapy, an exclusive dialogue between myself and the camera where we push each other to a point of exhaustion, both emotionally and physically. My work reveals this intimate process which I invite the viewer to partake in. In my portraiture, as I approach other subjects, I take this comfort with me and try to recreate the same intimate setting. This process from subject to intimate confidant is what drives me to keep creating.

5. Who would you most like to photograph? I hope to have the fortune of my family allowing me photograph then until the day I can no longer pick up a camera.

Image above of Leonora Oppenheim‘s London home office (with a Herman Miller Celle chair) via TreeHugger.

Holland, Michigan, where Herman Miller’s Design Yard facility is located, is one of the communities vying to be chosen. From now until March 26, residents can nominate the city and make the case for why it should be chosen. All you need is a Gmail account. Here’s hoping that Holland will be chosen (and that you’ll help by nominating the city).

Via Discover.

It’s fascinating and Greenwald offers some very good advice, including the following – “…successful consultants say that having a work space separate from your living space is crucial. Clients do not want to have an important phone conference interrupted by a nagging two-year-old, a TV in the background or the sounds of street traffic. Most freelancers I spoke to have a space in their home that is solely for work—a bunker, as it were.”

I like the idea of a bunker. If you’ve got any bunker-like work spaces send them in – we’d love to see them.

The home office above is from Steven & Chris – Decor on a Dime series.

One of the greatest perils and perks of working from home is the potential for procrastination. It’s an issue I battle with from time to time—but sometimes I’m all too happy to admit defeat. Like during the Australian Open when one can wake up in the morning, brew a pot of coffee with Mexico Santa Cruz beans from Ristretto Roasters, and settle in for few prerecorded hours of fierce volleying between Nadal and Murray. The net result, if you will, was getting a creative charge not only from the intensity of the first two sets before injury ended the match, but Nadal’s natty color scheme of Aster Pink, Orange Blaze and White.